Lessons From 2 Years Outside The Maze

The doug firs softly swoosh in the wind through the window of the loft of this log cabin.  I’ve got a crock pot dinner bubbling and will shortly crack a bottle of my special beer that was 18 months in the making.  I’m here with the family to get away and also to quietly celebrate.  As the sun falls below the mountains in the distance I’ll toast my 2nd year outside the maze.  This place seems fitting:

It was 2 years ago that I left my job with the idea to live life a bit differently. It’s kind of cool because now every time I see the Aspens changing, I know it has been another year. Last October I shared what I learned from the first year and it is crazy how much has changed since then! 

What Happens When Everything Changes

Starting the year, I envisioned 2020 to be another year of travel and adventures.  I was headed to Peru, going to take my mother on a sort of trip of a lifetime, and had plans to do some exploring and diving off the Florida keys.  I would also continue my design your life experiment for a second semester as an unlikely university professor.  My calendar was full of social events with friends.  In a few more classes, I would get my green shirt in Muay Thai which meant that I could start contact sparring.  Can you believe what a difference a year makes?  Can you believe that it was only 7-8 months ago that Covid19 showed up and took a huge dump in the fruit salad at our picnic?    

The year had started ominously with the loss of my grandmother to cancer and a reminder that life is short with long spaces in between.  I didn’t know that Covid19 would change everything, and many of us would lose more loved ones.  All of my travel was quickly cancelled, my teaching role went away, and grappling with sweaty strangers in Muay Thai was out of the question.

It is a darkly comical irony when you find yourself writing quite a bit about financial independence, happiness, successful habits, travelling, and experiencing adventures.  Then 2020 comes and people fear for their life and basic health, partisanship divides us, people are out of work with the economy really struggling, the fight for basic equality takes center stage, travel and adventure are severely limited, and happiness and successfully living your best life gets totally redefined for the foreseeable future.

A Good Year for Building

A life threatening pandemic and the most people out of work since the great depression has a way of making one think about his life.  I believe now more than ever that the toll of 2020 on our collective mental health should not be underestimated.  I spent much of my year trying to take care of my mental health and that of my family.  Rather than focusing on what I couldn’t do, I focused on adventures that I could undertake during Covid.  This included some household projects, using this time to take stock of finances, and lots and lots of getting outdoors.

My Biggest Secret to Happiness in 2020

My secret to adventure during Covid19 was getting outside as much as possible.  I camped more this year than any other.  I paddle boarded, biked, fished rivers and lakes, climbed mountains, and exercised most days.  I found myself off the grid at least a couple of times each week.  For me this combination of exercise and natural beauty worked wonders.  I expect to continue this into 2021 or as long as social distancing warrants.  

A Focus on Positivity

It is easy to be positive and feel optimistic about life when everything is going great.  However, this year was a good practice for me in how to do this when things go wrong and the world seems plain crazy.  I spent quite a bit of time looking into optimism, confidence, and positivity in 2020.  It started with some questions about why these subjects are so often the stomping grounds of hucksters and motivational speakers as opposed to science.  The surprising thing I found, is that there is research backed evidence that optimistic people perform better, are healthier, live longer, are more successful, and are more resilient to trauma and adversity in life.  All great things especially in the times we currently live.  Over the year I have been practicing many of the exercises from this research and have been happy with the results.  It is something that I was passionate enough about to even discuss on the Earn & Invest Podcast and I hope the message helps others during these times.

Thoughts on Money in 2020

“I realized that I was at the point where I could stop working for other people to get financial independence and could start working for myself to achieve happiness.”

This has been a mantra of mine since I started this site and this journey 2 years ago.  It hints at a mindset and a shift in how I make decisions in life.  I had the opportunity to discuss this in detail in a guest interview earlier this year on how “Financial Independence is More Than a Number.”

I am happy to say that I have seen a shift in my relationship with money over this year.  I think about it less.  I know this seems strange in a year of tumult and market mayhem. 

While much of the world may not be fair, the math of saving and the returns of investing apply to everyone.  This is why I try to help others on their financial path as part of the mission of this site.   

My friend JL Collins put it well in our chat earlier this year that, “money is like oxygen.  When you have enough it’s easy to not pay attention to it. When you don’t have enough, then you can’t think about anything else.”  The lesson is two fold.  First, money is super important in life.  Those with great finances were surely better positioned for the pandemic challenges and possible job insecurity of 2020 for example.  Second, when one amasses enough money the urgency of it appropriately diminishes.

My first year after claiming financial independence (under safe withdrawal guidelines) was spent feeling grateful and adjusting to the realization that, “holy crap I never have to work again simply to make ends meet.”  This second year found more income coming into our household as my lady has continued to work for reasons beyond financial, and I had continued income from teaching and real estate.  In addition, the stock market has seen an insane recovery despite what I view as strong headwinds for our economy in the future.  In short, this all means that finances are sound and the size of our buffer on a safe withdrawal rate has even increased.  It raises questions about finances.  If I am still spending time on endeavors that earn money, how does that empower me?  If I make more do I want to spend more?  If so on what?  Myself, family, charity?  All this has me thinking more about mission.

Thoughts on Mission in 2020

I interviewed a half dozen people over this last year for a series called “Living Outside The Maze,” about those living self designed and intentional lives that often look very different than the norm.  One common theme that I found from these conversations was that after a few years of adjusting to their self designed lives, many started to think quite a bit more about mission.  What is my impact on the world? What does my life look like in 5 or 10 years?  

In a year like 2020, suddenly the question of, “what would you regret if you got sick tomorrow,” takes on a whole new urgency.  I don’t have all of the answers yet but I do know that 2020 has had me starting to think about mission a lot more.  

I had planned to spend quite a bit of the year on smaller endeavors like travel, some adventures, and socializing with friends.  When this went away, it raised the question of what I should be doing now?  Homeschooling my kids when everything went online, for example, was a slog that I did not sign up for.  However, if part of my mission is raising smart and conscientious kids, this same slog gets re-framed into something very worthwhile since it is part of a larger mission.  In the vacuum of losing much of what I had planned to do for the year, this is something that is on my mind going into 2021.

With limited options under this pandemic now and going forward, I have felt a greater pull this year to apply some of my skills to a large project or longer term potentially entrepreneurial endeavor. Time will tell where this might go but these thoughts have me asking questions of what I would be doing it for and what the mission might be? I have been thinking more about my family and if there are changes that I want to make knowing that my kids will only be under my roof for another 7-9 years. I have also spent many hours over this last year working on a music project. While music has long been a hobby of mine, the question becomes what the larger purpose of this effort might be beyond just doing something that I enjoy?

These are all of course very privileged and lofty questions and I am grateful to be able to think in these terms.  It is not lost on me that this has been a hard year for many. My hope is that personal mission can help drive you as well and perhaps re-prioritize with the new perspective that this year has given us.

Looking Forward to Year 3

Growing up as a kid in Minnesota, the harsh winters were a real presence for seeing the passage of time. The fall, the harsh cold, the melt and return of birds and sunshine. Here in Colorado, my seasons are less pronounced but the changing of the aspens every year marks a time to think about the past year and the next. This year was an especially tough one, however, I am optimistic for the future. 2020 has shown me the power of optimism, the importance of changing with changing times, and has me thinking even more about mission in life.

I hope this site has been a positive for you over the year. If you have any useful practices or lessons to share from your year feel free to chime in on the comments. If interested, you can also subscribe below to get a weekly email directly from me with a few thoughts and latest writings.